Abstract
The major green tea polyphenol (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) has been shown to exhibit antitumour activities in several tumour models. One of the possible mechanisms by which EGCG can inhibit cancer progression is through the modulation of angiogenesis signalling cascade. The tumour cells’ ability to tightly adhere to endothelium is a very important process in the metastatic process, because once disseminated into the bloodstream the tumour cells must re-establish adhesive connections to endothelium in order to extravasate into the target tissues. In this study, we investigated the anti-angiogenic effects of EGCG treatment (10 μM) on human cervical tumour cells (HeLa) by evaluating the changes in the expression pattern of 84 genes known to be involved in the angiogenesis process. Transcriptional analysis revealed 11 genes to be differentially expressed and was further validated by measuring the induced biological effects. Our results show that EGCG treatment not only leads to the down-regulation of genes involved in the stimulation of proliferation, adhesion and motility as well as invasion processes, but also to the up-regulation of several genes known to have antagonist effects. We observed reduced proliferation rates, adhesion and spreading ability as well as invasiveness of HeLa tumour cells upon treatment, which suggest that EGCG might be an important anti-angiogenic therapeutic approach in cervical cancers.
Highlights
In 2007, cervical cancer was reported to be the second most common female cancer worldwide, being the third cause of female cancer mortality annually [1]
In this study we report the effect of EGCG on the angiogenic potential of HeLa cervical adenocarcinoma cells, the molecular transcription pattern induced by EGCG treatment
On the premises that every gene expression is associated with a biological effect, we further validated our findings by measuring the effects of EGCG treatment on tumour cell proliferation, adhesion, spreading and invasiveness
Summary
In 2007, cervical cancer was reported to be the second most common female cancer worldwide, being the third cause of female cancer mortality annually [1]. In this study we report the effect of EGCG on the angiogenic potential of HeLa cervical adenocarcinoma cells, the molecular transcription pattern induced by EGCG treatment. The effect of EGCG treatment on the invasive properties of cervical cancer cells was determined using the matrigel transwell migration assay in co-culturing conditions.
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